Lago di Bracciano & Roma

 

Bracciano

We left the Puglia region and drove up the eastern coast of Italy before heading west across the country and through some beautiful scenery, specifically Parco Naturale Regionale Sirente-Velino. We made our way west to our final few days of the trip and Lake Bracciano. 

Lake Bracciano is a lake about an hour north or Rome. It has three small towns around the perimeter of the lake and we were staying in one of them, Bracciano. We arrived in Bracciano late afternoon, wound our way up the tiny roads of the town to the top and checked into our AirBnb. We were staying in small apartment just outside the main attraction of the city (besides the lake) - the castle! Castello Orsini-Odescalchi is a medieval castle from the 15th century. It is supposedly very well preserved and we wanted to tour it, but to our surprise, it was temporary closed for two weeks. There was lots of activity around the castle grounds and we weren't sure what was going on at the castle but definitely some sort of production was our guess. 

Church outside our apartment door - the castle was just to the left.

View from our apartment stoop.

We decided to walk down to the lake to take a look. Lago di Bracciano is a volcanic lake and is the 8th largest lake in Italy. It's a quick train ride from Rome so it's easy to head up from the busy city to the quiet areas surrounding the lake. The water of the lake was super clear. We could easily see the bottom clearly.

After heading back up the hill to the town, we found a place a for dinner and called it a night. 

Tortilloni with truffle sauce

The next morning, we decided to drive around the lake to visit one of the other lake towns, Trevignano Romano. We stopped first at a morning local outdoor market in the town. They were selling clothes, household linens, fresh pasta, flowers, etc. We shopped a little then made our way to a cafe by the lake for some coffee and pastry. We had a lovely conversation a gentleman who was now living in the town but he was originally from England. Once our coffee was ready, we headed to a table by the lake and enjoyed the view. 

Afterward, we decided to explore the town. We quickly discovered that a movie was being filmed in the city - lots of crew and gear and scenes being filmed. Of course, every little town here looks like a movie set to us so it seemed like the perfect location. We then wondered if that's why the castle in Bracciano was closed maybe filming was also happening there??  We walked the cobblestone streets, took in the lake views, admired the old buildings and then made our way back to the car. 

Original gate to the old part of the city.

So many beautiful winding alleys. This one had a sleeping cat.

Olive tree!

Church at the top of the village

The universal love of reading makes my heart happy!

Clouds and blue sky reflecting in the lake!

Looking back at the village - you can see the white church from an earlier photo at the top of the hill.

A view of the third town around the perimeter of the lake - Anguillara Sabazia

Since the castle was closed, we still had a significant portion of our day left so we decided to head to the train station and go to Rome for the late afternoon and evening. The only problem was there was a train driver strike. It's a pretty common occurrence in Italy and they even post the dates of upcoming strikes. It doesn't mean that all trains are canceled but service is interrupted for sure. Regardless, with our Nutter Butter's skills that she gained from living here a semester, we parked the car at the train station and found a train that would get us to Rome.

Originally, we had only planned to spend our final day in Rome because Chris and I had spent time there last year and CJ had visited several times during her semester. But since Audrey hadn't been before this extra time was a plus. We decided to mainly focus our evening around the Colosseum. This area is filled with so many ancient ruins. Italy in general is filled with historical structures, but this area of Rome with the Roman Forum and the Colosseum is amazing. 

Roman Forum

Interestingly, as we were walking the Roman Forum, we were stopped by a young man and his wife. My guy is wearing a UNCW Lacrosse t-shirt (college clothing is the majority of his t-shirt wardrobe :-)) and the man says, "Hey! UNCW Lacrosse!" He was actually a soccer coach at UNCW! He asked if he could take a picture with Chris because he said his boss just wasn't going to believe it. Small world!!  

The sunset was beautiful in this area. We grabbed some quick food and then made our way back to the train station to head back to Bracciano. The only problem... now every train was canceled!! Every option was unavailable, delayed indefinitely, canceled! And we were stuck. The taxi line at the train station was super long but we finally found a taxi and had to take it all the way back to our car at the train station near Bracciano. Not easy, not cheap, not quick! 

Rome Sunset

Our plan for our last day was to leave our luggage stored at our hotel by the Rome airport where we planned to stay and then turn the car in and take the train into the city. Audrey and CJ left a little earlier than us to go into Rome to see Vatican City. We dropped them at the train and my guy and I took the luggage to the hotel and returned the car. We then took the train from the car rental at the airport to meet up with them in Rome. Today, my guy was wearing a NSCU t-shirt. In the train station in the middle of downtown Rome. A random man yells at him, "Hey, I've got one thing to say you! GO PACK!" At the same time the stranger is doing the Wolfpack symbol. We returned the gesture! Again, small world!

We planned to first visit the Museo Dell'Ara Pacis which is where we met up with the girls. This museum contains the restored monument called Ara Pacis Augustus - Alter of Peace honoring Augustus and commissioned in 13 BC. We planned this visit because our Nutter Butter did a research project and presentation on the monument as one of her class assignments this semester. It was originally located in another part of the city which eventually became entirely covered with layers and layers of silt. If you ever get to visit Rome and walk through the Forum, you will see how much lower that area is than the current road. So much history was covered up and then other buildings and roads were just built over top of them. In the 1500s, fragments of the Ara Pacis were discovered and then more were discovered in the 1800s.  It was decided that they would excavate as much as possible and reconstruct the monument. You can see from the photos that some pieces are original and then an artist made matching missing pieces to reconstruct the entire structure. 

After we left the museum we headed toward the central streets of Rome and walked toward Piazza de Popolo stopping in shops along the way. The Piazza is at the northern end of the city. From there we walked up toward Villa Borghese - a park in the middle of the city with some historical buildings and monuments. 

Standing in Villa Borghese overlooking the Piazza

I love the sky in this photo with the storm in the distance on one side and the blue sky on the other.

We walked back down toward the center of the city and made our way to a famous gelato stop in Rome. We passed by two weddings in progress and did a little more shopping. Later in the afternoon we stopped for some tiramisu which was super yummy! More historical sites and finally a last Italian dinner!

Wedding Scene

The line for gelato was out the door and down the street - our Doodlebug waited!!

Fontana dell'Acqua Felice (Fountain of Moses)

Tiramisu

Trevi Fountain

Pantheon and an adorable little yellow Fiat

Cacio e Pepe

Our time in Italy has come to an end. I just loved seeing my Nutter Butter in this element that has been her home for four months. The confidence and sense of adventure was so quietly evident. I love to see my kiddos grow in ways that I never had the courage to do myself! It warms my heart. 

My Nutter Butter